111th gold medal exhibition at the scarab club
Curated by Katie Pfohl
“Annual unthemed, all media exhibition open to all Scarab Club members. Katie Pfohl is a curator and writer who centers collaborations with artists and community. Her work seeks to amplify the voices of artists, foster connections between people, and create space to engage with the urgent issues of our time. Pfohl is Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts.”
Singleton’s carved portraits employ naturally occurring knots and grain augmenting and enhancing the texture and shading from the ballpoint pen line work. The only color beyond the warmth of the stained wood is an earthy rose tint to Clarissa’s lips. (left the chair rail in the image for a sense of scale)
These delicate forms quietly but definitively attract the eye. Subtle tints and shadows embellished with metallic silver emerge upon approach.
Waffled reeds twist into a light sculpture, its casted shadow contributing further dimension. In the absence of color, this braid relies heavily on gradation created through overlapping and tightly woven ends to break the repetitive, prosaic string.
Bold, shiny black horizontal strokes stop short of full coverage allowing the bright reds and yellows to provide movement and depth. Tiny red dots and black linked chains sit on the surface while a diagonal swath of opaque azure blue supplies the compositional anchor.
The Scarab Club’s Medal open calls—one gold, one silver—grant the opportunity for any artist to exhibit in an often intimidating art world landscape. The show is unthemed generating a wide variety of mediums and genres making for a vibrant, interesting exhibit illustrating the breadth of work currently being made in Detroit.
On view through December 28th at The Scarab Club 217 Farnsworth Detroit
*images are mine
direct quote from gallery materials
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SHOWS OPEN THIS WEEKEND